IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO.

4, DECEMBER 2005

737

An Online Technique for Monitoring the Insulation Condition of AC Machine Stator Windings
Sang Bin Lee, Member, IEEE, Karim Younsi, Senior Member, IEEE, and Gerald B. Kliman, Life Fellow, IEEE
AbstractA novel online technique for monitoring the insulation condition of ac machine stator windings is proposed in this paper. The concept is to measure the differential leakage currents of each phase winding from the terminal box in a noninvasive manner to assess the insulation condition during motor operation. The conventional differential CTs used for phase fault protection can be replaced with high performance current sensors to measure the leakage current with higher accuracy. Indicators for insulation condition such as the capacitance and dissipation factor are calculated based on the measurements to provide a low cost solution for online insulation condition assessment. A simplied online insulation system model is derived for analysis and interpretation of the measured data. Experimental results on a 15-hp induction motor under simulated insulation degradation conditions show that the proposed technique is a very sensitive method capable of detecting incipient signs of insulation degradation. Index TermsAC machines, dielectric losses, fault diagnosis, insulation testing, leakage currents, monitoring .

A. Ofine Stator Insulation Monitoring The most accepted and widely used ofine stator insulation tests include the insulation resistance (polarization index), high potential (ac and dc), capacitance, dissipation factor (tip-up), surge comparison, and ofine partial discharge tests, where each test is effective for diagnosing certain types of insulation problems. The main limitation of ofine testing is that the machine must be removed from service. The machine outage interval depends on the machine and its application, but typically is once every 36 years; therefore, the machine cannot be tested frequently enough to guarantee reliable machine operation until the next outage. In addition, considering that most ofine tests listed above do not contain signicant diagnostic information unless it is trended over time and measured under identical conditions, it is very difcult to assess its present condition or predict the remaining life of the insulation with ofine data. Other shortcomings of ofine tests are due to the fact that the winding insulation is not exposed to actual operating stresses during the test, and that some tests are invasive.

I. INTRODUCTION

HE electrical insulation is one of the most critical components for operation of ac electric machines of all types and sizes. It is shown in industrial surveys and other studies on machine reliability [1][3] that the stator winding insulation is also one of the most vulnerable components used in an ac electric machine. The surveys published in [1], [2] show that 30%40% of ac machine failures are initiated from problems in the stator insulation, and in a recent survey published in [3], it is shown that the percentage of stator related failures is as high as 60% 70% for high voltage machines (generators and large motors). Stator insulation failure during machine operation can lead to a catastrophic machine failure resulting in a costly forced outage. Prevention of such an outage is a major concern for both the machine manufacturer and end user, since it can result in signicant loss of revenue during the outage as well as repair or replacement cost. Therefore, stator insulation quality assessment is an important requirement, and there has been considerable effort over the last century in identifying the causes of stator insulation degradation and failure, and nding methods for assessing the condition of stator insulation systems. To increase the reliability of the machine and to reduce the chance of forced outages, periodic as well as online insulation tests have been developed over many years [4][7].

B. Online Stator Insulation Monitoring If the insulation condition can be assessed online, more accurate and reliable diagnostic information on insulation condition and its remaining life can be provided to the machine user or operator. In addition, the measurements can be obtained under actual operating conditions without an outage with initial investment for the dedicated sensors and a means of processing the data for trending. The methods available for online stator insulation monitoring include thermal monitoring, chemical monitoring (ozone, tagging compound monitoring), phase and ground fault relays, and online partial discharge monitoring. The primary purpose of online thermal or chemical monitoring is to detect severe thermal problems in the insulation when insulation failure is imminent (they are only considered to be cost effective for large machines). Phase and ground fault relays are installed in a machine to prevent severe machine damage caused by insulation failure; however, they are of go/no go type monitoring and do not provide true monitoring capability. Online partial discharge monitors can detect partial discharge activity, which is one of the most important symptoms of severe insulation degradation leading to failure [8]. Although online partial discharge monitoring requires installation of dedicated sensors and specialized equipment, and the interpretation is somewhat subjective, it is a very effective means of monitoring and potentially preventing failures caused by corona activity driven insulation aging.

Manuscript received June 9, 2004; revised October 20, 2004. Paper no. TEC00168-2004. S. B. Lee is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea (e-mail: sangbinlee@korea.edu). K. Younsi is with General Electric Company Global Research, Schenectady, NY 12309 USA. G. B. Kliman, deceased, was with the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180-3590 USA. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TEC.2005.853760

0885-8969/$20.00 2005 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on September 15, 2009 at 11:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

738

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2005

Corona (partial discharge) is not the only root cause of stator insulation failure. Failures in the stator insulation system are caused by a combination of multiple internal and external stresses on the insulation system during machine operation (the causes and mechanisms for stator insulation failure are described in detail in [4] and [5]). The main root causes of insulation failure that is common in random and form wound machines can be summarized as: 1) delamination or cracking of insulation due to thermal overload or cycling; 2) abrasion of insulation due to vibration of loose coils or abrasive particles; 3) degradation due to repetitive electrical stresses; and 4) electrical tracking or chemical degradation due to contamination. Partial discharge is one of the main symptoms of insulation failure mechanisms, but cannot detect all the signs of insulation damage that leads to failure. Moreover, partial discharge is a phenomenon observed only in high voltage (2300 V or above) or inverter fed machines. Several techniques have been reported for online insulation monitoring based on capacitance and dissipation factor measurements; however, they are applicable to equipment such as bushings and transformers, or cables [9][11]. Given the limitations of the state-of-the-art in this area and the potential benets of online insulation condition assessment, the objective of this work is to develop an effective and practical technique that is capable of monitoring the overall condition of the stator winding insulation online. An overview of ofine capacitance and dissipation factor tests are presented in Section II, which serves as a basis for the online version of the tests. The concept and potential benets of the proposed techniques is presented in Section III along with the derivation of a simplied online insulation system model, which is used as the basis for the algorithm and analysis. The details of the setup and results obtained from a 15-hp motor for feasibility evaluation are presented in Section IV. Section V describes the challenges and practical issues for implementation and lists suggestions for future work, and the conclusions are drawn in Section VI. II. OFFLINE CAPACITANCE AND DISSIPATION FACTOR (tan)/POWER FACTOR TESTING The online technique for insulation condition assessment proposed in this paper is based on measurement of the capacitance and dissipation factor online. Therefore, the ofine versions of the tests introduced in [4], [5], [12][14] are summarized here as they can be used as the theoretical basis for analyzing online test results. The capacitance test measures the capacitance value between the stator conductor and the grounded stator core using a capacitance bridge [4], [5], [12][14]. If the capacitance measurement is trended over time, it can provide indications of thermal deterioration, moisture absorption, and endwinding contamination [4]. Thermal overheating of the insulation causes undesirable delamination or drying out of the insulation that introduces air or gas within the insulation, which causes the capacitance

Fig. 1. (a) Electrical insulation system equivalent circuit. (b) Phasor diagram representation of capacitive ad resistive currents.

to decrease (decrease in effective dielectric constant). On the contrary, the value of the capacitance will increase if the insulation absorbs moisture, since the dielectric constant of water is much higher than that of solid insulation. Contamination of endwindings with conductive substances increases the effective area of coupling between the conductor and grounded stator core, which results in a possible increase in the capacitance. It is preferred that each phase is measured separately during ofine testing for monitoring the condition of each phase, and to compare the values between phases. The dissipation (or power) factor test is often used in conjunction with the capacitance test because they can provide valuable indications of insulation problems when combined. The dissipation factor, also known as the tan , is an indication of the dielectric losses in the groundwall insulation [4], [5], [12][14]. The electrical equivalent circuit for the groundwall insulation system can be modeled as an equivalent capacitor, Ceq , that represents capacitive coupling, and a resistor, Req , that represents dielectric losses as shown in Fig. 1(a). The measured leakage current, I, consists of capacitive and resistive components, IC and IR , with respect to the voltage, V , as shown in Fig. 1(b). For a healthy stator insulation system, the leakage current is mostly capacitive since the capacitive impedance is much smaller than the resistive impedance. The dissipation factor, DF, is dened as the tangent of the angle between IC and I, , as shown in (1), and the power factor (PF) is dened as the cosine of angle between I and IR , as shown in (2), where tilda, , represents phasor quantities. For small angles of , DF, and PF are similar and used interchangeably in industry as an indication of dielectric losses of insulating materials and systems DF = tan = |IR |/|IC | PF = cos(90 ) = |IR |/|I|. (1) (2)

There is much information that can be obtained from the DF measurements regarding the winding insulation condition when the measurements obtained under the same test conditions are trended over time, and/or compared between phases. The DF test alone is an indication of inherent dielectric losses and its general condition. The DF values increase with thermal deterioration and contamination and/or moisture absorption [4], [5], [12][14]. The increase in the dielectric losses due to thermal deterioration can be explained microscopically as the tendency of thermal overload induced oxidation increasing the oscillation of the polar molecules [4]. Thermal

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on September 15, 2009 at 11:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

LEE et al.: ONLINE TECHNIQUE FOR MONITORING INSULATION CONDITION OF AC MACHINE STATOR WINDINGS

739

Fig. 2. Proposed differential leakage current measurement technique for online assessment of stator winding insulation condition.

degradation of resin binders in groundwall insulation can also contribute to the creation of conductive or polar byproducts capable of increasing dielectric losses. Another explanation is the increase in conduction current due to cracking or peeling of the insulation caused by thermal deterioration (with some contamination). The dielectric losses also increase with partly conductive contamination from foreign particles or moisture absorption, since both the dielectric absorption and conductive losses increase. If the trends of both measurements C and DF are available over time, insulation problems such as thermal degradation or contamination/moisture absorption can be diagnosed with more condence. If a trend of decrease in C, and increase in DF are observed, this is a strong indication of thermal deterioration. If C and DF increase, this indicates insulation surface or bulk contamination or moisture absorption. It should be noted that all the measurements presented in this section provide indications of the average condition of a winding and not the condition of the most deteriorated area. III. ONLINE INSULATION QUALITY MONITORING A. Principles The main concept for monitoring the stator insulation condition online is to measure the leakage current ow through the stator insulation for each phase. This can be accomplished by measuring the differential current of the line and neutral end of each phase winding, as shown in Fig. 2. If the current sensor encloses both ends of the phase winding leads, only the current component leaking from the phase conductor through the insulation to ground is measured, since the large main stator load current is canceled out. The leakage current of phase A, ia,l , shown in the gure consists of equivalent capacitive and resistive components, ia,C and ia,R , which will be shown in more detail in Section III-B. By measuring the phase angle of the differential leakage currents with respect to the line-neutral (or ground) voltages, the values of DF and C can be calculated online based on (1) and Fig. 1. Trending the data from the continuous online measurements of C and DF allows monitoring of the insulation condition while the machine is under operation.

Fig. 3. Typical terminal box conguration: differential CTs enclosing line and neutral end of 3 phase stator windings for phase fault protection.

Fig. 4.

Simplied on-line insulation model for a 3 ac machine.

In a typical industrial setting for medium or high voltage machines, the three neutral terminals are connected together outside the machine in the terminal box, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. It is shown in Fig. 3 that the line and neutral ends of each phase are accessible, and that a differential CT is placed in the terminal box to enclose both the line and neutral ends of each phase. The CT does not measure the differential current with high precision since its purpose is to measure the large fault currents produced by phase faults. B. Simplied Online Insulation System Model Stator insulation systems are complex systems where the components used for groundwall and phase to phase insulation, and its geometry, depends on the rated voltage and machine design. For the purpose of monitoring the overall insulation

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on September 15, 2009 at 11:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

740

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2005

respect to ground assuming that the stator neutral is close to the ground potential (balanced voltage operation). It can be assumed that the line-neutral voltage is distributed linearly between the line end (Vln ) and the neutral end (0) of the phase conductors. Therefore, it can be assumed that the magnitude of the equivalent or average voltage between the A, B, or C phase conductors and ground is half the actual line-neutral voltage, shown in (5) as follows: Vag,eq = Vag /2
Fig. 5. Per phase equivalent circuit for on-line and off-line differential leakage current measurement in phase A.

Vbg,eq = Vbg /2

Vcg,eq = Vcg /2.

(5)

condition online, a simplied insulation model shown in Fig. 4 is considered, where nodes A, B, C, and G represent the stator winding conductors of phase a, b, and c, and ground; and subscripts l, p, and g represent leakage, phase, and ground, respectively. The coupling between the phase and ground represents the insulation that separates the copper conductors from the grounded stator core (groundwall insulation), and the coupling between the phases represents the insulation that separates the copper conductors between phases (phase to phase insulation). It is assumed that the coupling between the phases, pp, and phase to ground, pg, are represented by an equivalent parallel capacitance and resistance [14], as in the single phase case shown in Fig. 1(a). The equivalent capacitance and resistance parameters in Fig. 4 depend on the motor design and insulation materials used for groundwall and phase to phase insulation systems. In this model, it is also assumed that the Zpg and Zpp are the same for each phase (balanced insulation system). The main differences between online and ofine leakage current measurements are: 1) the voltage distribution across the stator conductor and 2) the inuence of voltages in the adjacent phases on the phase to phase insulation system. When a DF test is performed ofine, the phase windings are separated at the neutral end, and the two phases not under test are grounded to the stator core. When the phase under test is energized, a constant voltage is applied evenly across the entire phase winding. The voltage applied to the phase to phase insulation in the two adjacent phases is equal to the applied voltage. Using an example of energizing phase A, it can be seen from Fig. 4 that the voltage across AB, AC, and AG is equal to the applied voltage, Vapp , since B and C are grounded. The per-phase equivalent circuit for this ofine test is shown in Fig. 5 (switch on). An analytic expression for the measured leakage current can be derived from Fig. 5 as (3), and the leakage current can also be expressed in resistive and capacitive current components shown in (4) as follows: Ia,l = Vapp (1/Zpg + 2/Zpp ) Ia,l = Ia,l,R + Ia,l,C = Vapp 1 2 + Rpg Rpp + j(Cpg + 2Cpp ) . (4) (3)

In addition to the linear voltage distribution, the inuence of the adjacent phases must also be taken into account when deriving an expression for the measured leakage current. The equivalent line voltages can be assumed to be approximately half the actual line voltages, shown in (6) as follows, if it is assumed that the voltage distribution in all three phases is linear: Vab,eq = Vab /2 Vbc,eq = Vbc /2 Vca,eq = Vca /2. (6)

From Fig. 4 and considering (5) and (6), it can be seen that the leakage current measured during motor operation is not the same as (3). An analytic expression for the phase A leakage current can be derived from the observations above as Ia,l = Vag /(2 Zpg ) + (Vab + Vac )/(2 Zpp ) (7)

and the corresponding equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 5. The per-phase equivalent circuit can be further simplied as a circuit with Req and Ceq in parallel assuming that the voltages of the three phases are balanced. The measured leakage current for each phase shown in (7) can be decoupled into resistive and capacitive currents as Ia,l = Ia,l,R + Ia,l,C = Vag Vab + Vac + 2Rpg 2Rpp + j Vag 2 Vag (Vab + Vac ) Cpg + Cpp 2 2 1 3 + Rpg Rpp + j(Cpg + 3Cpp ) . (8)

The circuit shown in Fig. 1(a) can be used as the per phase equivalent circuit for online measurement of the leakage current, where V is half of the line-neutral voltage of the phase where the differential current is measured, and the Req and Ceq are shown in (9) and (10) as follows: Req = Rpg Rpp /(3Rpg + Rpp ) Ceq = Cpg + 3Cpp . C. Stator Insulation Aging Mechanisms and Inuence on Online Measurement of Ceq and DF When the motor is operating, the instantaneous values of line to neutral voltage Vln and the leakage current Il can be measured for each phase, and processed to extract the phasor quantitiesthe magnitude and phase angle. From the phasors, the dissipation factor and equivalent capacitance of each phase (9) (10)

When the machine is operating, the line end of the winding is at line-neutral voltage and the neutral end is at zero volts with

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on September 15, 2009 at 11:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

LEE et al.: ONLINE TECHNIQUE FOR MONITORING INSULATION CONDITION OF AC MACHINE STATOR WINDINGS

741

can be calculated as shown in (11) and (12), respectively, as follows: DF = tan = tan[90 (Vln /Il )] 100 Ceq = (2|Il | cos )/(|Vln |). (11) (12)

The equivalent circuit parameters shown in Fig. 4 gradually change with the insulation aging mechanisms such as thermal deterioration, contamination, moisture absorption, or partial discharge activity, as described in Section II. It can be seen in (9) and (10) that the variations in both the groundwall and phase to phase insulation quality are reected in Req and Ceq ; i.e., Req is a function of both Rpg and Rpp and Ceq is a function of both Cpg and Cpp . Therefore DF and Ceq provide an indication of the overall (average) insulation quality for each phase. Each type of insulation aging mechanism is reected in the variation in the DF and Ceq measurements in a different way. Any type of insulation aging mechanism that increases the dielectric losses causes a decrease in Req , and therefore an increase in DF. The value of Ceq can either increase or decrease depending on the condition. The following summarizes how each type of insulation aging mechanism is reected in the variation in the DF and Ceq measurements: 1) thermal deteriorationdecrease in Ceq and increase in DF; 2) contaminationpossible increase in Ceq and DF; 3) moisture absorptionincrease in Ceq and DF; 4) partial discharge damageincrease in DF. The magnitude and degree of change in the DF and Ceq measurements under the insulation degradation conditions listed above depend heavily on the materials and design used for the insulation system. Therefore, it is difcult to dene an acceptance criteria for the change in the values of DF and Ceq measurements. In addition, DF and Ceq measurements are sensitive to the winding temperature, humidity, and the input voltage level; therefore, they must be taken into account when trending the measurements. The values of DF and Ceq must be trended over time and between phases to obtain useful information regarding the overall insulation quality. When performing ofine insulation tests, it is critical to obtain the test data under the same ambient temperature, humidity, and applied voltage level; otherwise the data must be adjusted to compensate for the differences in the conditions under which the data is obtained. It should be noted that the purpose of this paper is not to provide information on data compensation for ambient conditions or acceptance criteria for changes in DF and Ceq . The objective is evaluate the feasibility of measuring the DF and Ceq online, which has a potential for providing many benets for monitoring the overall stator winding insulation quality, as summarized in the following section. D. Potential Benets of Proposed Approach The proposed approach is a noninvasive, low cost solution for online insulation quality assessment that can be implemented on most small to medium voltage machines. A high performance current sensor can be installed to replace existing phase fault CTs in most cases. For cases where the three neutral terminals

are not accessible, the stator winding can be recongured to accommodate the current sensor. The data processing and trending algorithms can be implemented into the motor monitoring system, which are installed in most modern industrial machines where reliability is important. The main advantage of the proposed technique comes from its online insulation quality monitoring capability. Online monitoring does not require a costly outage for inspection, and provides the measurements when the machine is exposed to actual operating conditions. This is an important feature, since it is believed that the fault revealing behavior for most faults in electric machines can only be observed when it is operating. In addition, online measurement of DF and Ceq can provide a more accurate assessment of the insulation condition. As mentioned previously, a single ofine test data for DF and Ceq has no major diagnostic value unless it is trended over time. When performing scheduled maintenance once every 36 years, the period for data comparison as a function of time is from one shutdown to another, and the test must be performed carefully since inconsistent data is meaningless, especially if the measurements are infrequent. For the proposed technique, measurements can be obtained online under the entire ambient and operating conditions of the machine. The data can be stored and trended over a long period of time according to ambient conditions. The amount of information available in the data is signicant compared to the ofine measurements; therefore, it is easier to trend the data for a more precise assessment. With the trending based on continuous measurements, the chances of predicting insulation failure are higher, and therefore, costly forced outages due to failure can be prevented. Another advantage of online assessment is the ability to prioritize and schedule maintenance for the entire eet of machines under consideration based on its present condition and predictions. This allows inspection to be performed in a more efcient manner compared to regular periodic inspections of machines, which can reduce the number of costly outages. Establishing a database of the test data for machines of all ratings, vintage, and insulation types presents a tremendous potential advantage towards advanced diagnostics capability for condition assessment, failure prediction, and prioritization and scheduling of maintenance. The proposed technique can also be applied to all single phase and three phase ac machines and transformers. It can also be easily modied to accommodate any type of electrical equipment that has electrical insulation. In addition, the arc faults caused by insulation degradation can also be predicted, which reduces the safety risks for the maintenance personnel. IV. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY A. Experimental Setup To verify the feasibility of the proposed technique, tests were performed on a 480-V 20-A 15-hp induction motor with a random wound stator, where the three line and neutral terminals are accessible. The three neutral terminals were connected outside the motor, and a current sensor was installed to enclose the line and neutral ends, as shown in the experimental setup in Fig. 6. The line-neutral voltage was measured using a standard

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on September 15, 2009 at 11:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

742

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2005

Fig. 6.

Experimental setup for testing the proposed method (15-hp motor).

Fig. 8. Measurements of v ag and ia , l with neutral terminals disconnected from each other and oating; stator load current, ia , is zero.

Fig. 7. Equivalent circuit representation of experimental setup with variable resistor for simulating degradation of insulation condition.

600-V potential transformer, and a high performance active current sensor was used to measure the differential leakage current with high resolution. For data acquisition, a commercial 16-bit high speed digitizer was used for measuring Vag and Ia,l at a sampling frequency of 20 kHz, at rated voltage and at no load. The data was low pass ltered with a cutoff frequency of 4 kHz, and the discrete Fourier transform was used for extracting the magnitude and phase information from the instantaneous measurements at 60 Hz. A 0.580-M external variable resistor Rext was installed between the line end and ground of one phase to simulate deterioration in the insulation condition due to higher losses. The representation of the insulation equivalent circuit and the test setup conguration that includes Rext is shown in Fig. 7. B. Experimental Results The rst test performed was an ofine test where the rated voltage is applied to the motor with the three neutral ends disconnected from each other (oating). This applies a uniform balanced three phase voltage across the conductors of the motor, and there is no stator current ow (other than the leakage current) since the path for the current is open-circuited. The circuit representation is the same as in Fig. 7 with neutral terminals disconnected and ia equal to zero. This test allows measurement of the leakage current without the inuence of the stator current. The equivalent circuit for this test is the same as the one described in Section III-B for the online case except for the voltage distribution. As can be seen in Fig. 7, the voltage of the line and neutral ends with respect to ground is uniform at the rated

Fig. 9.

Online measurement of v ag and ia , l at no load.

voltage. Therefore, the effective voltage applied to the insulation and the leakage current is two times larger than that of the online case. The measured waveform for vag and ia,l for the ofine test are shown in Fig. 8, where the rms values of vag , ia,l and the value of Ceq averaged over a 1 second interval are 289.9 V, 696.9 A, and 6.622 nF, respectively. The online measurements of vag and ia,l for phase A are shown in Fig. 9, where the measured rms values of vag , ia,l and the value of Ceq are 281.0 V, 351.6 A, and 6.633 nF, respectively. The rms value of ia,l is approximately half of what was measured in the ofine case, which veries the assumptions made on the voltage distribution in Section III-B. It can be seen that the leakage current leads the voltage by almost 90 , which indicates a capacitive current, as predicted. The calculated values of and DF are 2.34 and 4.08%, respectively, for Fig. 9. The results shown in Figs. 8 and 9 verify that the leakage current can be measured online using the proposed method. The calculated values of Ceq and DF can be monitored continuously while the motor is operating to assess the overall condition of the insulation system. The measurements for Ia,l , Ia,R , Ia,C , , DF, and Ceq for phases A, B, and C are summarized in Table I. It can be seen that the measurements of DF for all three phases of the machine are high, and values of Ceq and DF between phases were signicantly different than expected. It should be noted that the results obtained for the DF are completely different from the values obtained in ofine tests

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on September 15, 2009 at 11:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

LEE et al.: ONLINE TECHNIQUE FOR MONITORING INSULATION CONDITION OF AC MACHINE STATOR WINDINGS

743

TABLE I MEASURED VALUES OF Ia , l , Ia , R , Ia, C , , DF, AND C eq FOR PHASES A, B, AND C ION OF R ext

TABLE II MEASURED VALUES OF Ia , l , Ia , R , Ia, C , , DF, AND C eq AS A FUNCTION OF R ext

due to different voltage distribution and inuence of adjacent phase voltages. The DF values are higher since the result contains more information on the line end, which is more likely to be damaged due to high stress. It is also suspected that the high values of the DF are due to the motors age (20+ years) and the fact that many tests were performed on the motor for inverter drive development over many years. The differences of the Ceq and DF values between phases can also be attributed to the fact that it is a random wound stator, where the insulation system is less likely to be balanced compared to form wound stators. An external variable resistor, Rext , was connected between the line end of phase A and ground to observe whether the proposed technique can detect changes in the insulation condition. The resulting per phase resistance of the insulation system is Rext connected in parallel with Req . Therefore, a decrease in Rext simulates any type of insulation problem that causes the dielectric losses (or DF) to increase in the insulation system due to thermal degradation, moisture absorption/contamination, or partial discharge damage. The value of Rext was adjusted from 80 to 0.5 M in discrete steps to obtain measurements of vag and ia,l (80, 48, 32, 24, 16, 12, 8, 5, 2.5, 1, and 0.5 M). It should be noted that IEEE 43 [12] recommends that the minimum value of the insulation resistance should be 5 M for random wound stators. The values of Rext were selected to check if the proposed method is capable of detecting incipient insulation degradation before failure occurs. The instantaneous measurements of vag and ia,l over a 1-s duration were obtained and processed to calculate the values of Ia,l , Ia,R , Ia,C , , DF, Ceq for eleven different values of Rext , which is summarized in Table II. The waveforms of vag and ia,l for when the values of Rext are 0.5, 1, 2.5, and 12 M, and when Rext is open circuited, are shown in Fig. 10. It can be seen that the magnitude of ia,l and increase as the value of Rext is decreased. The values of Ia,l , I a,R , Ia,C , and , DF, Ceq shown in Table II are plotted for Rext = 1 80 M in Figs. 11 and 12, respectively. The data in Table II is also plotted in Fig. 13 in the phasor diagram representation shown in Fig. 1(b). It should be noted that the x and y axis scales in Fig. 13 are different for display purposes; therefore, the angle is not the actual angle. From Table II and Figs. 1113, a monotonic increase in Ia,R and the angle (or DF) can be observed, as the value of Rext is decreased. This indicates that the proposed technique can be used for assessing the condition of the insulation system accurately and help predict insulation failure with proper modeling and trending. The change in (or DF) can be clearly observed even when there is an additional resistance path between the line end and ground as high as 80 M. Considering that 5 M

Fig. 10.

Waveforms of v ag and ia , l for R ext = 0.5, 1, 2.5, 12 M.

Fig. 11.

Measured values of Ia , l , Ia , R , Ia , C f orR ext = 1 80 M.

is the recommended minimum value of insulation resistance, the proposed technique is capable of detecting incipient signs of insulation deterioration. Therefore, it is capable of providing the user with very early indications of insulation failure. It can also be observed in Table II and Fig. 11 that the magnitude of Ia,l increases as Rext is decreased; however, it does not provide a sensitive indication as the (or DF). A noticeable change can only be observed when the value of Rext is decreased

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on September 15, 2009 at 11:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

744

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ENERGY CONVERSION, VOL. 20, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2005

Fig. 12.

Measured values of , DF, and C eq for R ext = 1 80 M.

Fig. 13.

Phasor diagram representation of Ia , C and Ia , R as a function R ext .

to or below 2.5 M. The differential current relays currently being used for phase fault protection only monitors the magnitude of the leakage current since the purpose of using phase fault relays is to trip the machine after insulation failure occurs. The results shown in this work show that capability of predicting insulation problems can be signicantly improved by obtaining the phase angle information in addition to the magnitude. Table II and Figs. 1113 also shows that the measured capacitive current component and the Ceq estimates are constant and independent of the Rext value as expected, since it is only the resistive component of Ia,l that is being changed. It can be seen in Table II that the Ceq estimates are very consistent, which shows the potential of monitoring Ceq and DF for assessment of insulation condition. It is difcult to simulate changes in the capacitive component due to thermal degradation, contamination, or moisture absorption since it requires irreversible damage to the test machine insulation. A procedure for testing machines under accelerated thermal degradation and/or moisture absorption to observe the changes in Ceq and (or DF) is currently under investigation. V. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE WORK The scope of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of measuring the leakage current for online measurement of DF

and Ceq . The experimental study presented in Section IV has shown promising results for detecting insulation degradation in its early stages. However, there are practical issues to be resolved, and more work to be done regarding measurement of Ia,l , data processing, and interpretation. This section is dedicated to summarizing the practical issues regarding implementation and recommendations for further work. The rst and most important step towards implementing the proposed technique is to obtain an accurate measurement of the leakage current. As stated in the preceding sections, the purpose of the conventional differential CTs used for phase fault protection is to measure the magnitude reliably enough for protection of the machine after the insulation failure occurs. Therefore, it cannot measure the magnitude and phase of the leakage current with high enough accuracy for implementing the proposed technique. Moreover, the measurements can be inuenced by the currents in adjacent phases depending on the current level and cable arrangements in the terminal box. The differential CT used for the proposed technique must provide accurate magnitude and phase angle readings and shielded for EMI, if necessary. Therefore, the next steps of this work currently under consideration are CT design optimization and testing of larger machines to identify the challenges of implementing the proposed idea. The experimental study veried that the differential leakage current can be measured for monitoring the capacitance and dissipation factor online. Another important next step for the implementation of the technique is to process the measurements to compensate for the inuence of variations in operating conditions such as stator insulation temperature, humidity, and voltage level. Once this is established, algorithms for trending the processed measurements over time and between machines and phases need to be developed. This will be a basis for interpretation for precise condition assessment and prediction of insulation failures for stator insulation systems. An extensive database accumulated over a long period of time for a large number and types of machines under various operating conditions is critical for accomplishing this task. VI. CONCLUSION An online technique for monitoring the average insulation condition of ac machine stator windings based on the measurement of the differential leakage current has been proposed in this paper. An online stator insulation system model has also been derived along with the basic guidelines for interpretation of the online measurements of Ceq and DF. An experimental feasibility study on a 15-hp induction machine has also been presented to verify the proposed idea. The experimental results veried the validity of the online insulation system model and showed that Ceq and DF can be estimated consistently with high precision. It has also been shown that degradation in the insulation system that results in decrease in Req can be detected with high sensitivity, which allows detection of incipient insulation degradation. The potential of the proposed technique on insulation condition assessment is significant since it is a noninvasive and low cost solution that is capable of monitoring the overall insulation condition continuously

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on September 15, 2009 at 11:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

LEE et al.: ONLINE TECHNIQUE FOR MONITORING INSULATION CONDITION OF AC MACHINE STATOR WINDINGS

745

while the machine is under operation. The information obtained for online condition assessment can also be used for prioritizing and scheduling maintenance of the entire machine eet, and trended to help predict insulation failure. This allows inspection to be performed in an efcient manner with reduced safety risks and chances of forced outages due to insulation failure. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors gratefully acknowledge C. Burnie, J. Hayward, D. Hanchar, and R. Bell for their assistance on the testing, and J. Maughan for his support. REFERENCES
[1] P. ODonnell, Report of large motor reliability survey of industrial and commercial installations: Part I and II, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 853872, 1985. [2] P. F. Albrecht, J. C. Appiarius, and D. K. Sharma, Assessment of reliability of motors in utility applications-updated, IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 3946, 1986. [3] Monitoring und Diagnose elektrischer Maschinen und Antriebe, Allianz Schadensstatistik an HS Motoren, 19961999, in VDE Workshop, 2001. [4] G. C. Stone, E. A. Boulter, I. Culbert, and H. Dhirani, Electrical Insulation for Rotating Machines, ser. IEEE Press Series on Power Engineering. New York: Wiley, 2004. [5] I. Culbert, H. Dhirani, G. C. Stone, EPRI Power Plant Electrical Reference Series in Handbook to Assess the Insulation Condition of Large Rotating Machines, vol. 16, 1989. [6] A. J. Gonzalez, M. S. Baldwin, J. Stein, and N. E. Nilsson, Monitoring and Diagnosis of Turbine-Driven Generators. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1995. [7] G. C. Stone, Advancements during the past quarter century in on-line monitoring of motor and generator insulation monitoring, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., vol. 9, no. 5, pp. 746751, 2002. [8] G. C. Stone, H. G. Sedding, and M. J. Costello, Application of partial discharge testing to motor and generator stator winding maintenance, IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 459464, 1996. [9] D. M. Allan, M. S. Blundell, K. J. Boyd, and D. D. Hinde, New insulation diagnostic and monitoring techniques for in-service HV apparatus, in Int. Conf. Properties and Applications Dielectric Materials, vol. 1, 1991, pp. 448451. [10] X. Huang, F. Bai, W. Gao, and Z. Yan, A new on-line insulation diagnostic method for capacitive-type equipment, in Proc. Power Syst. Technol., vol. 1, 1998, pp. 100104. [11] P. Wang, M. R. Raghuveer, W. McDermid, and J. C. Bromley, A digital technique for the on-line measurement of dissipation factor and capacitance, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 228232, Apr. 2001. [12] Standard Test Methods for AC Loss Characteristics and Permittivity of Solid Electrical Insulation, (2004). [13] IEEE Recommended Practice for Measurement of Power Factor Tip-Up of Electric Machinery Stator Coil Insulation, (2000). [14] IEEE Recommended Practice for Testing Insulation Resistance of Rotating Machinery, (2000).

Dr. Lee received the 2001 Second Prize Paper Award from the Electric Machines Committee of IEEE IAS. He is a member of the IAS Electric Machines Committee.

Karim Younsi (M91SM04) received the B.S. degree in electrotechnology from the University of Science and Technology of Oran, Oran, Algeria, in 1986 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering-dielectric materials from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France. Most recently, he was an Insulation Systems Engineer with GE Power Systems, Schenectady, NY. Prior to that, he was an Insulation Research Engineer with GE Canada, City, ON, Canada, a Research Engineer with Ontario Hydro in Toronto, and a Research Associate with Queens University, City, ON, Canada. In 2003, he joined the Electric Machines and Drives Laboratory, GE Global Research Center, Schenectady, NY, as a Dielectrics and Insulation Systems Engineer. He is currently involved in the design and qualication of new insulation systems for electrical equipment such as medical systems, motors, and generators. Dr. Younsi is a Registered Member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario in Canada, and a member of the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation, Industry Applications, and Power Engineering Societies.

Gerald B. Kliman (S52M55SM76F92 LF95), deceased, received the S.B., S.M., and Sc.D. degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, (MIT), Cambridge, in 1955, 1959, and 1965, respectively. He died in 2004. From 2001 to 2004, he was a Research Professor in Electrical Engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, after retiring from the General Electric Company. At GE Corporate Research and Development, he conducted fundamental studies of linear, synchronous, permanent magnet and induction motors, advanced drive systems for traction, the development of high-efciency and high-speed motors, electromagnetic pumps, and the application of new and developing magnetic and nonmagnetic materials and insulations. A major emphasis was the development of incipient fault detection techniques for electric motors and drives. Following graduation from MIT he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to GE Corporate R&D, he had several assignments in GEs Transportation Systems Division and Nuclear Energy Division where he worked on adjustable speed drives, high-speed linear induction motors, large electromagnetic pumps, etc. He was also an Associate Editor of Electric Power Components and Systems. He has had 88 patents granted in his name and various publications including several prize papers. Dr. Kliman was a Senior Member of the American Institute of Physics.

Sang Bin Lee (S95M01) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Korea University, Seoul, Korea, in 1995 and 1997, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 2001. From 2001 to 2004, he was with the Electric Machines and Drives Laboratory, General Electric Global Research Center, Schenectady, NY, where he was involved in research projects related to monitoring and diagnostics of electric machines. He is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Korea University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests are in protection, monitoring and diagnostics, and control of electric machines.

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on September 15, 2009 at 11:24 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.